‘I like both of those guys’ — Chiefs OC Matt Nagy on getting 2 weapons that have been underutilized more involved
They could give the Chiefs’ offense a spark.
The Kansas City Chiefs are looking for answers after getting off to an 0-2 start and performing sluggishly on offense.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been in superstar mode as he tries to make up for offensive deficiencies. He has had virtually no help from his rushing attack, and inconsistencies from his pass catchers.
While speaking to the media on Thursday, Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy was asked about two skill players potentially getting more involved after being underutilized to this point.
Chiefs OC Matt Nagy discusses getting RB Brashard Smith and TE Robert Tonyan more touches
“Both [are] really good players,” Nagy said. “Both have packages. They understand the next man up mentality. You look at our tight end room, and Bobby’s (Tonyan) done a great job at stepping in, and he’s a vet. He’s done a lot of good stuff for us, so there’s a lot of trust in Him. With Brashard, he’s learning still. I think he’s in a good pace right now. We’ll continue to keep him in some packages and keep changing up what we do with him, and he’s really growing. I like both of those guys.”
If the Chiefs were to have an MVP award for the preseason, it would have likely went to Tonyan, who caught eight passes for 90 yards and one touchdown. However, he has played just 13 snaps on offense throughout the first two regular season games, and has yet to receive a target.
Smith had a lot of hype during training camp as he displayed his speed and often ran with the first-team offense. It didn’t translate much over to preseason, as he racked up just 33 yards on nine carries. So far during the regular season Smith has just one carry for two yards, and zero catches on one target.
It definitely couldn’t hurt to get both Tonyan and Smith more involved. No. 2 TE Noah Gray currently has just two catches for four yards, so maybe it’s worth putting Tonyan in that role for a week to see what he can do. As for Smith, there’s no question the Chiefs should give him more touches. It can’t get much worse than what they’ve gotten out of Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt, who are averaging a combined 3.4 yards per carry.
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